Ten months
by Amon-100
Summary: Not really good at summary's. But set around thirteen cycles after the PK wars so check it out and tell me what you think
1. Chapter 1

Ok first Farscape story I've posted ever, wonderfully betaed by CharmedPeacekeaper so R&R and tell me what you think.

Chapter 01

The night cycle on Moya had begun arns ago. Her golden-ribbed corridors were lit by a slight glow, a soft glow that was echoed on the terrace where ex-US astronaut John Crichton sat staring out into the swirling blue and purple mists of the gas cloud Moya was currently traveling through. Though Aeryn had tried to get him into bed several times already, John had refused. Now he was staring out of the massive portal, his voice recorder in hand, trying to do what he hadn't done in years: record a letter to his father.

Determined to get it right this time, he pushed the red "record" button.

"Hey Dad. I know it been a while, hell it's been well over decade since I left Earth. Don't worry though. I'll be coming back some day. I've never been one to Welch on my promises. Besides you gotta meet your grandkids. But I'm getting ahead of myself; I should probably start at the beginning."

Pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, John considered what he was going to say next. Deciding he took a deep breath and began.

"After we got back, things took a turn for the worst. Aeryn was captured by the Scarrens. Scarrens, by the way, are big lizard-men type aliens. I think I told you about them. Anyway, she was tortured for weekens before we managed to save her. She endured so much, and it was all because she was involved with me…they tried to get wormhole knowledge from our unborn child through some sort of genetic coding and typing.

"Things then started to look up. I asked her to marry me in a rowboat. And let me tell you, Dad, when she said 'yes' it was the happiest moment of my life. But then, and this could only happen to me, a ship swooped down and _fired_ at us. I remember pulling Aeryn tight and waiting for the blast to hit us. There was a kinda tingly feeling and the next thing I knew, we were on some sort of machine surrounded by Noranti, Rygel and a whole mess of aliens I'd never seen before.

Anyway, the blast had some how crystallized us…we shattered and Rygel had to bring up our pieces in his stomach. But here's the kicker…" John paused and snorted a laugh before continuing.

"Rygel didn't pay out all the shards, so when we got put back together, the baby ended up in Buckwheat. He was fine, but the looks on Aeryn and the toad's faces were priceless…Hell mine must have been too.

"But that wasn't the worst thing. See, while we were playing Humpty Dumpty (literally), two of the biggest powers in the galaxy- you guessed it; the Peacekeepers and the Scarrens- were gearing up for war. I'll tell you all the details when we meet face-to-face, but in summary; Sikozu was a spy for the Scarrens, we got the baby back in Aeryn and he ended up being born in the middle of the biggest war in recorded history. We lost Big D when he stayed behind to cover our escape, and I ended the biggest war in history by giving them what they wanted: a wormhole weapon. Yeah, Dad. I made one and I let it swallow their fleets bit by bit until they called a truce.

"Stopping the wormhole weapon was another matter. I nearly deep fried my brain trying to stop it, but I managed it..."

John stopped, closing his eye as something cold pressed in to his back.

Now let it never be said that the radiant Aeryn Sun was not subtle…in fact, she was far from it. Last time she asked, she had been wearing a silky black robe with what looked to be a Chinese dragon embroidered in silver thread wrapped lazily around her torso. And although her tone had remained normal, the look in her eyes when she spoke hinted that if he were to go to her right then and there, he would have the honor of relieving her of the robe and helping himself to what was hidden under it.

Now just because John was a genius didn't mean he had an ounce of common sense. Yes, he was intelligent, but at times it would seem that a bread vorlag had more sense that him. This was one of those times, clearly indicated by the fact that his wife was holding him at gun point. Gone was the silky robe, and in its place she wore a baggy black tee-shirt and a pair of thread- bare Calvin's she had liberated from him in his first year in the UT's

"Well dad I gotta cut this short it seem Aeryn is intent on getting me in to bed," John said into the voice recorder, his finger hovering over the "stop" button.

"Yes I am," she said, grabbing the recorder from him. "Sorry Jack, John will have to continue this later," she said into the mike, deftly ending the recording session. She turned her attention back to her husband. "Now get up. It's loaded with training rounds, and don't think I won't fire."

Aeryn pocketed the recorder with a deceptively sweet smile and escorted her human to their bedroom, still at gun point.


	2. Chapter 2

_**You all know what usual goes here, the part I really hate doing yes it's the, "mandatory disclaimer", I don't own Farscape, seriously if I did it would still be on air. **_

_**Now that that over with I like to do the part I like, acknowledgements, first of to" Hazmot" how gave the very first review, and has got some great fics. **_

_**And of course this fic wouldn't have even got off the ground with out the help of my wonder full beta CharmedPeacekeeper **_

_**But enough of this on with the show, or story in this case.**_

**Chapter 02**

Aeryn tossed and turned in bed, unable to get any rest. She was wound up tighter than she'd been in months and was currently cursing  
Crichton's inability to take a hint.

Experience told her that she had absolutely no chance at all of sleeping, but her own pride prevented her from waking the man beside her.

So she would have to fall back on age-old methods for dealing with her Crichton – focused lust: she would have to wear herself out so she'd be incapable of everything but sleep.

Memories of countless sleep cycles spent pounding thought Moya lower tiers in vain attempts to be rid of her of un-regulation thoughts for a lesser life form - who ripped her from every thing familiar and had condemned her to a life on the run with his insistence that she could be more than she was - begin filtering through her mind and she absentmindedly wondered how she survived those months in the assassination squad so long ago.

Many times over the years, she considered telling him that she dreamed about him nearly every night she had been gone (which usually meant that she needed to change the sheets come morning), but she decided to save it for when he really might need an ego stroking, that or he did something incredibly stupid right before she was going to reveal it.

The thought of swallowing her pride resurfaced for a brief moment. She quickly quashed it as her comms beeped.

Hearing nothing more from the small badge she tapped it "Hello" "Hi mum not interrupting anything am I?" Aeryn gritted her teeth, not  
missing the mocking tone in her son's voice that made it abundantly clear that he knew he wasn't.

"Actually you are, you father and I are in the middle of mad, passionate love-making" she replied in a breathless tone throwing in a few  
gasps and a moans for effect, before throwing her sleeping husband a glare worthy of a peacekeeper task master.

"Right" D'Argo voice was practically dripping with sarcasm "any way back to business…I managed to remove the zexan parasite from Pilot's main nutrient vain and I never want to have to do it again."

"D'Argo you did great," Aeryn told her son proudly, a small smile gracing her lips.

"Tell that to my hands they haven't stopped shaking since I closed."

"D, you've remove countless zexan parasites…" Aeryn began, but her son cut her off.

"Never from a Pilots main nutrient vain. Mom, if I'd made one mistake it would have released its toxin and..."

"D'argo" Aeryn said calmly and steadily, cutting him of before her son could get any more hysterical. "What's rule 4, D'Argo?" she  
queried in a firm, steady tone.

It was a few microts before he replied but in a steady voice D'argo stated "Do not contemplate defeat when victory has all ready been won."

"Good. Now, how's Pilot"

"He's fine, but I'll have to stay with him till the sedative wears off. I have to space this frelling parasite first, though."

"Good. I'll expect a full report at first meal."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am" D'argo replied closing the channel. It always surprised Aeryn how D'argo undersold himself. He was an  
excellent Leviathan technician even without his ability to communicate with them thanks to the traces of pilot DNA in his system. These same traces also gifted him with the Pilot multitasking ability, as well as the ability to speak pilot.

Carefully climbing out of bed Aeryn slipped on a dark red robe that had been draped over a nearby chair, the warmth from the soft fire silk dispelled any chill that may have been in the room.

Grabbing her holster from the post at the foot of the bed, she silently padded to the desk in the corner of the room to get her cleaning kit, quietly hoping that the repetitive task of stripping, cleaning, and reassembling her pulse pistol would help her to sleep. Sitting at the desk she laid out her cleaning kit and stripped the pistol. Laying out the parts in their precise and correct positions on the surface, she began to clean the parts.

Polishing the carbon crystal focusing lens, flushing the barrel with a course wire brush to remove any burnt chacken oil, lubricating the  
pistols internal mechanisms so they move fluidly and checked the charge of the power cell before reassembling the pistol and rubbing it down with a soft bristled brush…the task was familiar and comforting to Aeryn.

Having completed her task, Aeryn felt no more tired than when she started. As she was considering changing into her sweats for a run, she spotted the recorder she had confiscated from John earlier in the night. Picking it up, she played through the message. When it had finished she cast a wayward glance at her husband, who was practically comatose in their bed. John had been doing this every so often over the cycles, trying to compose a letter to his father.

But he always ended up dropping the project after a day or two…there was something about it that just made it impossible for him to do.

Really she didn't see what was so hard; all he had to do was just say what happened over the years. Her thumb wandered of it's own volition to the red "record" button, planting an idea in her head.

With one last glance at John, she decided to do what he couldn't.

**TBC**

**Well what do you think, press the review button and tell me.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well sorry about the long wait on this chapter guys, as all ways thanks to CharmedPeacekeeper my wonderful Beta and to HASMOT for an other review. So please if you like what you read, please review. If i get ten individual reviews for this chapter I'll post the next one this week. **

**Chapter 03**

Aeryn pressed down the record button, thought about what to say, and then hesitated, finally understanding why John was having a hard time with this project.

Aeryn stopped the recording to gather her thoughts. John had already 'loosely' described what had happened during the war. He had not gotten around to describing the fallout. That, then, was where she should start.

Restarting the recording she began: "Well Jack, since John can never finish one of these letters, and can't seem to take a simple hint, I'm doing it, and I'm going to pick up where he left off.

"After the battle Moya was badly damaged, but she still wanted to transport the surviving Eidolons back to there home plant of Arnessk. It's pretty much pointless to argue with a Leviathan, so we let her do what she wanted. The journey took over three monens.

"It wasn't an easy trip, between repairing Moya and taking care of Little D, John and I were rushed off our feet.

"We finally made it there, but instead of a peaceful planet with little activity outside of the atmosphere, we found several heavily-armed ships in orbit above the plant. We prepared to run, and then comm'd them.

"It turned out that the ship belonged to a group known as the Guardians. They had broken away from the Peacekeepers over 600 cycles ago, when they realized that they were becoming what they had originally been created to stop. They broke away in an event know as the First Great Separation, taking over half the peacekeepers forces and territory with them. They had settled and fortified themselves in an area now known as Forbidden Space.

"It was also around this time that mass conscription became the norm in order to refill the gaping holes left in the Peacekeeper forces due to the Separation."

Aeryn tapped the pause button on the recorder, stopping to consider if she was babbling, which she saw as an un-likeable habit she had picked up from John. No…she was just being thorough with her description of the Guardians. That wasn't babbling. Hitting 'record,' she continued.

"The Guardians had come to re-swear there blood oath to the Eidolons and retake their place as Guardians of the peace. There must have been over two thousand soldiers at the ceremony held at the temple ruins.

"It was overshadowed by the realization that Jool and over a hundred of the ancient Eidolonian monks had survived the bombing that started the war by taking refuge in the deepest tunnels under the Temple when the Scarrens bombed the plant.

"We stayed there for about three monens to give Moya proper time to heal and for us to rest.

"When we did leave, Jool joined us as well as Rygel, staying with us so he could gain support in retaking his throne while we began transporting cargo.

"For the next two cycles, life was pretty quiet. We had set up a successful trade route around both the Uncharted and Known Territories, sometimes delving in to Tormented Space if the job paid enough coin.

"Then a couple of months after Little D second birthday, we encountered the flag ship of Jothee's trading fleet, a captured Scarren Stingray that he had been awarded for his services to the Luxan Empire, ahead of schedule.

"Jothee was one of our trading partners and would usually provide us with protection on some rough areas of a route as well exchange cargo for destinations out side our own trade routes but in side the others.

"This time however he had came early because he had information that his father was alive in a Zenetian slave labor camp. I remember seeing the recon pictures, focused on a proud warrior we all though had died telling the Scarrens "who their daddy was," as John put it.

"John and I dropped every thing and join Jothee to extract D'Argo. Every thing went well until we arrived back on board Moya.

"Chiana had been hit the worst by D'Argo's death and had only just gotten over losing over him. Seeing him step out of a Luxan transport pod messed her up, and it took weekens to prove to her that he real and wasn't some sort of illusion or hallucination like the ones she had suffered after his death."

Aeryn stopped the recording wondering if she should say what jumped in to her mind next. She looked over at John and saw he hadn't even moved in their bed. She laughed softly to herself.

"Jack" she said stressing her father in laws name. "What I'm about to tell you is secret. What John doesn't know can't hurt him.

"Three days before Jothee came to us with the information on D'Argo, I found out I was pregnant. If John had known, he would have never let me go on the rescue mission…not that he could have stopped me.

"But when the thing between Chiana and D'Argo settled down, I had the stasis removed and gave birth to your granddaughter a weeken later. I named her Xhalax after her grandmother, my mother.

"John had objected, asking why we should name our daughter after such an evil woman. But I didn't name her after that Xhalax, I named her in the memory of the woman who came to me when I was a child in the barracks and told me that I was loved, that I was wanted…not the woman the assassination squad had turned her into."

Aeryn was about to continue when a low click emanated from the recorder as the depressed button popped up and a light on the side of the device indicated the data spool was full.

"Great" Letting her head rest on the desk she relented to the fact that she would have to search their chambers for a second spool. This was proving to be more difficult than she thought.

**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

Well here's the next chapter, Late I know but it leaving Cert year and the mock exam were coming up. So I would one again like to thank my Beta CharmedPeacekeeper, and to those who have reviewed this fic so far;

HAZMOT

Evelyn-Sunshine

J.Stone

AuroraLamia

Now enough of my babbling and on with the fic.

**Chapter 04**

Finding the second spool for the recorder had proven to be a challenge. Aeryn would have asked Pilot to have Moya generate another spool, but Pilot was sedated and Moya was diverting all of her calories to propulsion so they could get through this gas cloud quickly.

However, she had managed to find two extra spools after rummaging through a box of junk parts. (Why John couldn't use data chips like every one else she had no idea. The spools ended up on data chip anyway, since Leviathans were only compatible with the data chips for information storage.)

Sitting back at the desk, Aeryn propped up her legs on the edge and replaced the full spool in the recorder, slipping the full one into one of the pockets of her robe.

Restarting the recorder Aeryn continued with the letter. "Sorry about that, Jack. I had to replace the data spool.

"After Xhalax's birth things didn't quite settle down like they had after the war. Since D'Argo's return, Chiana's need to be a part of the Nebari resistance had rekindled, along with the need to find her brother, Nerri. It took us over a cycle to track him down.

"When we did, I have to say I was extremely impressed by the resistance forces he lead. Honestly, I expected a rag tag group, but Nerri had established a well-structured fighting force.

Nerri was a tactical master mind. His method of waging war is remarkably similar to how your Sun-Tun dictated in his Art of War. He coordinated his attacks to provoke the establishment to fighting them on his own terms, in an environment that benefited him; this allowed the resistance to win nearly all of their engagements despite their limited numbers."

Pausing the recorder, Aeryn sat up from the seat, stretching the kinks out of her back before walking over to the chambers large portal. She stopped for a second, looking out at the swirling gasses before settling down on its cushioned sill. They had been traveling through this gas cloud for the last weeken she couldn't wait to get back to normal space.

The Shroud protected a region of space known as The Guild Territories. It was huge and, at its thickest, over five standard solar systems. Over 80 long, the make up of the gasses made un-navigable and un-travelable by all but a few types of ships, and more had been lost to The Shroud than the Zenetian flux, but thankfully they were crossing at the clouds' thinnest point. The only reason they were traveling through it was that they were being pay a cycle's wages for this one job. To Aeryn, it just seemed to be too good to be true.

Once she was comfortable, Aeryn restarted the recording.

"After we found Nerri, Chiana was able to get Rygel to secretly support the resistance. I still don't know how she did it, but knowing that little tralk she probably knew something Rygel didn't want to get out.

"But we, along with a few other Hynerian Free Traders, began running weapons and supplies to the rebels. We also transported rebels back and forth for external training, all under the guise of bringing various supplies to a farming world of one of Hyneria's allies, located just inside the Nebari border.

"The trips went relatively well. We were noticed but not stopped by the establishment, as they didn't want to have to defend themselves from any external conflict, as its resources were spread dangerously thin with a full blown civil war, that they are still losing even to this day, thanks to the resistance.

"Every thing went relatively well up until five cycles ago, we were transporting a group of fresh rebels for training as well as Nerri himself and his aides. We were attacked by a Nebari special task force. Their ship had immobilized Moya, pushing her out of normal space time when they latched on to her hull.

"The task force easily subdued us by sending a stun pulse through Moya's conduits, the next thing I knew I was waking up in a cell with John and D'argo, unarmed, with Nebari control collars around our necks, two guards outside the door, and no sign of Chiana, her brother, or the other resistance soldiers.

"Thankfully, something hadn't seemed right before the attack. John had Jool and Noranti take the children to one of the many secret hiding places he and I had set up.

"Now, you might not agree with this, but we live in a dangerous part of the universe. When your father is John Crichton it becomes so much more dangerous than it was in the first place.

"So we made sure that both D'Argo and Xhalax were both well trained. John and I taught them to sneak not walk, hand signals before proper speech, then as many languages as possible before they received microbes. We also taught them how to fly like Peacekeeper pilots as soon as they could reach the controls of a ship, as well as to shoot like assassination squad snipers with their eyes closed. Okay…maybe that's not quite true. Well maybe it's true in D'Argo's case.

"Chiana taught them how to disappear in a crowd, escape restraints, crack codes, pick locks and, unfortunately, how to the same to pockets.

"Ka D'Argo taught the children Luxan fighting techniques, battle strategies, and combat tactics.

"And finally, Rygel taught them how to use explosives. Those were skills he had learned in the Hynerian Navy's tactical demolitions corp. Not many people can say they were taught by the Dominar of Hyneria.

"We did all this so they would be better than the best, better than anyone that would be sent after them.

As D'argo was older, I put him under special training similar to that of the Peacekeeper's Black Ghost commandos. He loved it; any time I would try to slow down he would complain that I was treating him like a baby.

"After a year of daily training, I think he was better than me, but that's how it should be. Children should be better than their parents.

"But that wasn't a comfort sitting in that cell. I never told John this but as a part of D'Argo's special training, I set up a contingency plan for situations like the one we were in.

"If he didn't receive an 'all clear' order 48 arns after being told to go to ground, he was assume we were either dead or captured, arm himself, and retake Moya.

"I remember counting down the arns, one by one, my dread and worry increasing as each passed.

"I knew D'Argo would follow the plan with out question, but I never considered that would be so young or that he would be going up against soldiers with shields that protected them from both pulse and frag weapons fire.

"When the 45 arn mark had passed, I didn't expect D'argo to act immediately. He would first secure Pilot's Den. After Pilot was safe and secure, he would use the DRDs to gather intelligence and monitor the enemy's movements and defenses before engaging.

"The first sign that he had engaged the Nebari came we heard over the comms of our guards. A team had failed to report in. Since no alarm had been raised, it was easy to deduce that D'Argo had taken out a whole five man squad so fast that they couldn't have possibly activated any of the alarm systems.

"The surprised look on John face was hard to bear as he whispered that some of the rebels must have gotten away.

"But there was no way a group of untrained soldiers could have take down a team that fast even if it was an ambush.

"The same call was repeated for a second team, and for a search team some time later before the leader of the strike force, a female Nebari Tactical commander named Zarax, announced over the general comms, for the attacker to surrender or she would kill her hostages.

"D'Argo replied in the same mean way. His voice was synthetic, distorted, fluctuating in tone and pitch, echoing over the general comms as well as the comms of their guards as they turned to face them.

"He said that she already had the resistance soldiers killed, that he had planted enough explosives to destroy the ship, and that Zarax's hostages were the only reason we were all still alive.

It turned out to be a prerecorded message. D'Argo dropped down in the corridor behind them from a vent, both guards dropping instantly as he fired with a Luxan bolt-thrower, which is a gas powered, rapid fire crossbow.

"Its projectiles were able to pass through the guard's shields as they were slow-moving compared to a frag round. Their shields only activated when they detected a fast moving projectile or energy blast about to hit. But the bolts had more than enough force to punch through the guard's armor

"D'Argo, looking like he had trekked through hezmana and back, he was splattered with blood both blue and red, a large bruise covered the left side of his face nearly swelling his eye shut, various cuts and bruises that speckled his arm and there was two knife cuts on his torso, a diagonal cut that nicked his chest and a longer horizontal cut along his stomach, none of them looked to deep, but they must have been painful

"The synthetic voice we had heard through the comm was due to the liquid oxygen respirator that instantly oxygenated the blood.

"I later learned that he was using it to prevent his left lung, which had been punctured when a soldier got a lucky shot and broke a few ribs, from collapsing as it kept both lungs filled with fluid.

"Broken bones and cuts can be healed and pain can be overcome. I was happy he was alive. It was like a curtain of worry had been lifted letting me breathe properly for the first time

"He released us from the cell, unlocking our control collars with a Nebari enforcers lance gauntlet that he had taken from the same soldier that injured him.

"It didn't take us long to retake Moya. 'D' had managed to set up several booby traps that the mind-frelled strike force teams were easily led in to.

"'D' always was good at gorilla warfare when we played war games.

"We rescued Chiana and Nerri soon after but, unfortunately, only one of his aides survived.

"Zarax managed to escape, leaving her guards and second-in-command behind, although she wouldn't have gotten far. You see, the first thing 'D' had done was sabotaged their ships life support system and fuel cells.

"Of all the post-skirmish clean ups we've done, the one after _that_ battle was the worst. D'Argo had been right. Zarax had ordered the rebels killed. We could only find sixty eight of them. According to Nerri, Zarax took great pleasure in firing at and disintegrating a few alive as an example before killing the others. Twenty-four people…that's barbaric as an example even by Peacekeeper standards. Their bodies had been dumped in on of the utility bays on tier nine right outside the entrance to the safe room D'argo and Jool had been hiding in. It disgusted me to think that that was the first thing D'argo had seen when he left the room

"When Rygel heard about what happened, with in 10 arns a Hynerian military task force had been dispatched to Nebari space. The Hynerians met no resistance when entering Nebari territory. They actually never met one establishment ship or manned border out post.

"The establishment had fallen back and fortified themselves in the core of their empire, leaving all the outer core and rim systems unprotected.

"After the incident with the Nebari, we once again tried to avoid trouble, only to jump - or should I say starburst – right into it again.

"It had only been six monens later, when Moya starbursted to the aid of another Leviathan, crewed by a psyonic species know as Hellions, that was being attacked by several small ships.

"Of course, we were quick to offer assistance in fighting off the ships. As thanks for our services, they invited us to travel with them. Our trade routes were remarkable similar, and they stop at most of the same commerce planets and trade stations. It was surprising we hadn't met before.

"We end up accepting their offer, and we only had to slightly adapt our route. Plus, it was good for D'argo and Xhalax to socialize with children their own age. Xhalax had developed a strange habit of talking to the machinery she worked on.

"The two quickly made friends with the Hellion First Officer's children, Ghost and his younger sister Taboo.

"It all seemed a little too convenient, and after a year we found out why: The attack had been a test set up by an ally of theirs.

"Captain O'Dai admitted to me a day before we entered the obit of some commerce plant. She said it had be set up by a relative of mine, my father's brother…my uncle as you would say.

"It turns out my family is infamous for deserting the Peacekeepers. Deria Meron, was an ex-Peacekeeper commandant; one of the youngest to ever receive that rank, and famous for forming the infamous Wolf-star regiment, first commands personal task force.

"I had met him once before when I was fifteen, he visited the command carrier I was station on and asked to inspect the members of my squad. He called us in to his office one by one. When my turn came he stared at me for microts, grabbing the arm rests of his chair in a white- knuckled grip, it was easy to seen how he got the name "Iron knuckle Meron." The dark metal could be seen through the translucent skin of his fists.

"I was scared shit-less, and that was before he even acknowledged my presence, although when he began questioned me, my fear all but seemed to dissipate. He spoke in a calm, easy tone and unlike the other higher-ups; he spoke to people instead of down _at_ them. It was well known that Meron was the kind of officer who didn't need to yell or make threats, or even clear his throat to get someone's attention. When he spoke, people listened, and when he gave orders, they were carried out with out question. So when he started to question me about my life after the usual questions, answers to which were usually on the file in front of the questioner, I continued with- out missing a beat.

"When he finally dismissed me, it was well past light's out. Back at my dorms, the others in my squad thought I had done some thing to anger the commandant and had been discharged from service, (an act usually done with a pulse pistol,) since they were dismissed while I was in the office.

"It was six monens later that the whole Wolf-star regiment betrayed the Peacekeepers, and the hero of first command showed his true colors. He and the entire Wolf-star regiment separated form the Peacekeepers, disappearing into forbidden space. The Peacekeepers tried to stop them, but Wolf-star didn't become first command personal task force for nothing

"Meeting Meron for the second time had been no different than the first. I had no proof he was who he said he was, but it was hard to walk away from someone who could tell me about my father.

"John and I met him in a small outdoor bar on the planet, knowing he wouldn't try anything funny surrounded by people and, most importantly, planetary security enforcers.

"It turns out he was who he said he was: a brother of my father, albeit adopted along with his sister when they were babes.

"He was more than happy to talk about Talyn and his brother Malachi, growing up on an agricultural plant, their time in the Peacekeepers, and nearly every thing in between.

"It was strange to find out that I had grandparents, aunts, uncles and dozens of cousins, living in Guardian Space, but I was good to know I had family that didn't go by rank and regiment.

"It was arns, but when Meron final finished we had a simple choice: he, like the Hellions, was a trader, but that was a cover as his Leviathan served as Guardian Mobile Distributor Cell, working alongside not only the Hellion but a cell of Kalish resistance fighters. It was simple: we could travel with them freely or continue on our way.

"We put it to a crew vote and the decision to join them was unanimous. The actual vote was nothing more than a formality. Leviathans are communal creatures. Give one a chance to join a pod, and you have no chance of convincing one other wise.

"It was also during that first meeting I had the _pleasure _of meeting Meron's daughter Kella, she was easy to see she was a hybrid; her mother was Kalish. She is about the same age as D'Argo highly obnoxious and full of dren about her own abilities. She reminds us of a young Sikozu; John even started calling her Sputnik after about five microts. All I did was smile and think how easily D'Argo would wipe the smug grin from her face.

"And that Jack, is how the legendary rivalry between D'argo and Kella began. There's no real point going in to it, you'll get to see that first hand, if those two haven't killed each other by the time John finds a way back to earth.

"Well…that's it. I've covered everything up till now, so I'll tell you the rest of the details when we meet. Bye."

Shutting off the recorder, she got up from the sill. Padding across the room, Aeryn picked up a small wooden box, and flipped a small catch that sat flush on one side. The box opened and she carefully stored the data spools with the other items in the box.

Before closing it, Aeryn carefully took a small bundle of brown leather out of the box. Unwrapping it ever so gently, she took a small shard of black metal, stained red in one corner, from the folds of leather. She gazed at the metal for a microt before wrapping it back up in the leather and putting safely in the box, shutting it with a small click.

Aeryn cursed her foolishness. Recording a letter had no chance of getting John off of her mind…it would only drudge up old memories. There was only one way to get him off her mind, and pride be damned.

Deftly, she brought her arms around her back and unhooked her restrainer though the thin silk of the robe. Pulling it out of one sleeve, she threw it across the room.

Taking a microt to readjust her robe before moving back to the bed, Aeryn straddled the sleeping human's waist and, with no remorse, she slapped him sharply across the face.

John didn't have time to complain as she quickly captured his mouth in a kiss. Thankfully, he got the hint.

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	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

D'argo sat in the terrace leaning against one of Moyas support ribs, but unlike his father earlier that night, he didn't spend his time staring out at the universe, his attention was on the book cradled in one arm, skimming a graphite stylus over the open page he began adding depth and shadow to his drawing.

The object of his scrutiny was a simple three dimensional shape. The pyramid tile his father found cycles ago on arnessk sat on top of a leather messenger's satchel, and had been turned several times over the past arn so each face could be capture on paper by graphite.

D'argo had rendered the tile as a whole first, then each face, Seabation, Edilonion, Interion and Human, final each of the symbols received a full page as he drew them each in detail.

He laid the book open on the deck, pushing it away, picking up the tile D'argo studied it trying to find some thing that he or his father had missed.

The tile it's self was metal but in was as light as wood, hollow and it floated in water. It boar no seam or mould marks, it was perfect, its points were sharp and edges crisp showing none of the usual signs of wear despite its age. It was like it just occurred instead of being created.

But a pyramid has five sides and the tiles fifth side was blank completely flat and smooth.

D'argo had seen a lot of trinkets in his life, both well and badly crafted, being the son of parents who traded helped a lot, and needless to say this tile was one of the finest pieces he had ever seen.

That alone made his gut twinge as he ran his figures over the smooth square base, any crafts man capable of creating a object of such quality would not leave a side blank, a base would have some small decoration, a makers crest or signature, something, not just left blank unless it was intentionally left blank.

Half the conclusions D'argo had formed about the tile, he had denounced him self, scribbling them out of his note book one by one.

The other half he didn't even bother writing down mostly because they revolved around something he shouldn't have.

After the temple had been rebuilt on arnessk, the edilonions had reinvited archeologists from the Interior academic society to continue their excavations and the plant had been declared an archaeological preservation site.

Each year their trade route brought Moya to the plant, it was sort of a meet up point for the other leviathans in the pod after separating to drop off cargo, and every year D'argo would try to put as many motra's between him and the north eastern continent and it's temple.

His favourite play ground was the smaller western cotenant as it held a great mixture of environments, ranging from tropical jungles to artic tundra and from mountainous forests to barren deserts.

When he was younger his mum would hold survival and planetary combat training there. But now that he was older he would usually go camping with Ghost and Tacer for a few days of the two weeken rest stop.

A cycle ago he had been exploring the large cave network in the centre of the continent. He had been marking his progress through the cave network by burning the rock with a pulse blast, after meeting a dead end he went back to the last mark and marked the passage that lead to the dead end with a standard blast pattern, but instead of the blast marking the wall, it shattered.

Inspecting the blast hole he found a small indent in the rock.

Reaching in he found something rapped up in an old piece of leather, inside was a cube with the same marking as his old mans tile, he had quickly pocketed the tile and didn't tell the others when he got back to camp.

As Arnessk was been an archaeological preservation site, taking the cube and not turning it in was considered theft, he probably wouldn't be to badly punished. But thanks to Jool both he and Xhalax had been accepted into the Interion academic academy. He could be expelled if they found out he took it, and his leviathan studies course was too valuable to him to risk. He doubted that they would think twice about expelling a correspondent student, no matter how much sway Jool had with one of the directors. So until he got his degree in two cycles the cube stayed locked away.

Although the longer D'argo studied the tile the surer he was that the cube healed the answers, they were most likely made by the same person, both made of the same unknown metal, and roughly the same in dimension, although the cube was much heavier, each boar the same symbols, Human, Edilonion, Seabation and Interion, but unlike the pyramid the cube had symbols on all six sides. He just wished he could remember what the other two were.

"Well this is going to drive me nuts." He exclaimed running his thumb over the row of branded symbol that ran down the left side of his throat for nearly a dench, right over the jugular.

Packing up his things, Dargo slipped on his satchel and checked his holster before leaving the terrace with out a second glance.

It may have been the middle of the night for half the crew, but it wasn't even midday for D'argo and the others on the second rotation. It wasn't that bad really, ghost and tacer tended to draw the night shift as well, he always found it strange how easily he missed them and the others when the ships separated, when for the better part of his life he only had his sister, Scree and his aunt pip to play with. When did that stop being all he needed, and only just enough?

"Hesmana I even miss Kella." He muttered to himself "I can't believe I just said that Moya" he could easily feel the biomech's amusement but shook it off.

"And I don't suppose you mind telling me why you feel like dren" A image of the shroud began form in his mind.

"Nice try, but no. Your not allergic to the shroud" D'argo gently ran his hand up and down one of her ribs "I wouldn't let the others take you in if you were it wouldn't be worth the coin" He spoke in a loud whisper. Moya didn't respond this time.

D'argo shook his head and continued down the corridor

As D'argo move through moya second tier he experienced one of the main disadvantages of the night shift you were awake while everyone else is a sleep or is suppose to be.

And jugging from the sound coming from the direction of his parents room they were definitely awake.

His sprint to the nearest access ladder was far to long for his liking and his legs burned as they took the brunt of the force, as he practly jumped down the shaft to tier three.

It wasn't that D'argo was embarrassed by the so called facts of life, one tended to learn about them a lot earlier than usually with chiana for an aunt. But like most newly dubbed teenagers he like to hold the belief his parents only, 'did the deed', the old mans words not his, just enough times to equal the number of siblings he had.

It just kind of hard to live in the elusion when evidence to the contraire assaulted your ears.

Entering the galley he found Norati cooking up midday meal.

"Granny do you ever sleep ?" D's southern drawl was nearly as good as his fathers.

Looking up from the pots Norati scoffed "D'argo when you get to my age you don't like to waist time on the silly trappings of youth, sleep being the worst, now tie your hair back and come give me a hand."

Doing as she said D'argo dropped his bag and tied back his braids with a strip of cloth. He never saw the logic of keeping hair short, sure it was easy to manage, but it would quickly become a bother as it grew out, until it reached a length that could be tied back. His braids had been chiana's idea, and even easier to keep. The old man said he looked like the guys on the cover of men's health with the hair and mussels, what ever the frell that was. And it wasn't like he was built like a warrior cast Hellion, no were near that, he was just well toned from training.

Striping off his leather gauntlets and cut off gloves he began chopping different roots and vegetables adding them to various pots. Norati stopped her chopping every so often to check his progress.

"D'argo remind me, what occurs when Yenna root and Couris extract mix."

"A exothermic reaction." D replied off hand not looking up from his work, such question were not uncommon for the old woman as she taught both him and Xhalax a lot about botany and cooking.

"Oh dear"

Thinking the question through D'argo head shot up " Wait was the couris extract powdered or liquid."

The answer came as the one of the pots exploded like a grenade sending the lid flying as instinct sent both D'argo and Norati to the deck.

"I can assume the couris extract was powdered" D yelled, his ears ringing from the boom, as he helped norati up.

The old woman nodded rigorously smoothing out her skirts, saying something.

"D'argo you comm"

"What" He said barely hearing his own voice.

Norati grabbed his right had and brought the ring on his index to eye level.

Tapping the ring with his thumb, he yell "Hello."

What ever the reply from the ring was it was lost over the ringing in his ears.

Getting his attention on again Norati took something from one of the bags that hung from her skirt. Leaning in to inspect it she shove it in his ear and the squeezed contents shot in to his ear canal.

D'argo shot up rubbing his ear with a figure, what ever the goop was it felt strange, but that was an after thought as the ringing in his ear began to quickly fade, allowing him to hear the voice booming form his comm.

"What the frell is going on down there, some one answer me ?"

"Sorry Cap'n, little cooking acident, no casualties, unless you count one of our best cooking pots." He replyed, holding the comm at arms length as if it might bite, while inspecting the charred pot. The heat of the exothermic reaction had incinerated the broth leaving it charred remains welded to the inside of the pot. He would defiantly not relish the task of trying to clean that.

The only response from the other end of the comm was a muffled groan or growl as the channel closed.

"What is this stuff?" Norati had placed an other pod in his hand a microt ago.

"Lakka, good the ears among other things." She replied mystically, stirring the pot of seabation mint stew, all ready acting as if the explosion had happened days ago instead of just seconds. "Now could you get me some Akka leaves, for the stew?"

"Gimme a second granny" D'argo sent a quick message to Jool on command before heading to retrieve the herb from the pantry squeezing the laka bulb in his other ear on the way.


	6. Possible Rebirth

Hi guys I would first like to thank everyone who read and reviewed the first five ten months back when I first started. I can believe how long It been since I looked at any of my own fan fiction, between collage; essays and finally a thesis, writing for the pure joy of writing fell to the way side. However here comes the good news I have recently found what something that I thought long lost my file containing all the ideas and story lines that I hashed out for the ten months universe, now I have to say a good chunk was corrupted, I really hate lightning storms, especially ones that end up frying my computer, and some of it coffee fueled gibberish. But there was enough good stuff there to get me interested in writing again. The thing is while what I started writing in ten months is important Introduced several key things in those few chapters, If I do reboot the series it will involve taking a big jump forward to when little D is 18/19 and things in his life are not so good. And then working forward and back with short fic's and one shots, focusing on John and Aeryn, Moya's crew and others.

I hope to start with gusto during the Christmas and hopefully have the first fic done by the end of January.

So the big question is are any of you still interested, and if so would any one be willing to beta / sounding board / chief stick poker to ensure I what I got in my head get down on paper, please drop me a IM.

Many Thanks

Amon-100


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